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do you think people will be able to read this post in 500 years?

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Short answer? no.
There are a number of issues with converting legacy data (one part of my job):
1. Getting it off the hardware it is on - For example, I can get data off a zip disc with a simple USB zip drive. If I want to get data off a jaz drive I need a desktop with a scsi card.
2. Figuring out what format the data is on. Data from this site (say it were saved as exported web pages) would likely only be viewable in a web browser.
3. Obtaining the right version of the software and the hardware to run it. If I have software that requires Netscape 4 to run and nothing else, how can I possibly run it?

The complications continue, but this should give you an idea. There is the whole other issue of would anyone actually save this and would they save it somewhere that you could still access it in 500 years.
 
SarcasticDwarf said:
Short answer? no.
There are a number of issues with converting legacy data (one part of my job):
1. Getting it off the hardware it is on - For example, I can get data off a zip disc with a simple USB zip drive. If I want to get data off a jaz drive I need a desktop with a scsi card.
2. Figuring out what format the data is on. Data from this site (say it were saved as exported web pages) would likely only be viewable in a web browser.
3. Obtaining the right version of the software and the hardware to run it. If I have software that requires Netscape 4 to run and nothing else, how can I possibly run it?

The complications continue, but this should give you an idea. There is the whole other issue of would anyone actually save this and would they save it somewhere that you could still access it in 500 years.
Click to expand...

perhaps the internet archive wayback machine will save it
 
brianmanahan said:
perhaps the internet archive wayback machine will save it
Click to expand...

It is possible, how you still have many of the same problems:
1. Will the updates that IA runs over the next 500 years allow all the content to be viewed in 500 years? The answer to that is no. About all we can really hope for is that the text will be preserved with minimal formatting.
2. Will IA exist? Probably, but likely not in its current form. It could go bankrupt in a hundred years and be bought out by some company/organization. The thread may be saved, but the only way to view it will be to go to their archive and submit a request to view it.

IMO, the biggest issue in 5+ year preservation is that everyone assumes that someone else will take care of it. Guess what? Except in very rare cases it is not being done.

(Don't get me wrong, the IA staff are great people.)
 
SarcasticDwarf said:
It is possible, how you still have many of the same problems:
1. Will the updates that IA runs over the next 500 years allow all the content to be viewed in 500 years? The answer to that is no. About all we can really hope for is that the text will be preserved with minimal formatting.
2. Will IA exist? Probably, but likely not in its current form. It could go bankrupt in a hundred years and be bought out by some company/organization. The thread may be saved, but the only way to view it will be to go to their archive and submit a request to view it.

IMO, the biggest issue in 5+ year preservation is that everyone assumes that someone else will take care of it. Guess what? Except in very rare cases it is not being done.

(Don't get me wrong, the IA staff are great people.)
Click to expand...

maybe the government should take control of internet archives to ensure it lasts into the future

as for me, i think i am going to bury blu-rays around town with all my files on them so someone can find them in the future
 
brianmanahan said:
maybe the government should take control of internet archives to ensure it lasts into the future
Click to expand...

Good luck with that. The US government continues to slash the budgets of the agencies that preserve information (national archives, library of congress, etc.). They are largely unable to keep up with preserving the amount of traditionally published, printed materials. Anything more than pilot projects for preserving digitial information is impractical.
 
brianmanahan said:
i read stuff from 500 years ago all the time

shakespeare, newton, da vinci
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You're no Da Vinci.

However, I would certainly be interested in reading what members of my family were telling each others 500 years ago.

Reading what a bunch of geeks were telling each others about the stopping power of the various type of swords back in 1513...... not so much.
 
as accessible as usenet posts of course... people will definitely want to seek it out, for sure.
 
The danger with the digital age is at most information is not stored on something basic and analog but rather on computer/servers which will probably have drastically changed in 500 years. If the information is continuously brought on to the new systems it's very well possible for very old Internet content to still be available in 100s of years from now, but over time it will be deleted, sites such as this one may shut down, etc...

Copyright will also stop people from being able to conserve information. So if a site such as this one is announced to shut down, nobody would be able to take it upon themselves to conserve the data without taking very high risks such as 35 years in jail.

Wikipedia has a TON of information, imagine if that site was to be lost. All that info, gone. It's not like it's a physical set of encyclopedias that will be dug up one day.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Wikipedia has a TON of information, imagine if that site was to be lost. All that info, gone. It's not like it's a physical set of encyclopedias that will be dug up one day.
Click to expand...

Certainly interesting, especially for records on a personal level. Most of my personal records (photos/emails) are digital only.

For society as a whole, we likely have enough printed material to keep future generations busy. But looking very far in the future, as more and more of information becomes only-digital, you have to wonder if whole eras will become virtual in history. A file on a hard drive (or millions on million of hard drives).
 
It would be interesting to be compiling a family tree and to research your great great great great great grandfather and find out he was a troll on AT:OT or to read about how he was wondering about sell by dates on chip packets.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
Very true. It really irks me that most people think our ancestors 500 or even 5000 years in the past were not very bright. They seem to equate the lack of technology with the inability to think.
Click to expand...

Who thinks this? You dont design and build monumental architecture or accurately calculate the circumference of the earth and calculate the precession of our galaxy by being dumb. Even village shamans could recite generations and generations of history using just their memory, and the accuracy can correspond with documented astronomical events.

Now knowledge was power, and the divide between the educated vs ignorant was much greater than it is today. Considering the tools they had to work with, I would even suggest that people back then were smarter. People today cant even figure out how they knew what they knew, excluding alien intervention theorists.

Back on topic...considering most internet users dont even know how to search, these posts will never be seen again.
 
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The NSA will be able to, should their facilities still exist.

They are actively archiving all internet traffic, on the order of exabytes, to be indexed and pulled as needed.
 
I don't think we will have a society or computers in 500 years so my answer is no. But just in case there still is a society English might be a forgotten language.
 
Puppies04 said:
It would be interesting to be compiling a family tree and to research your great great great great great grandfather and find out he was a troll on AT:OT or to read about how he was wondering about sell by dates on chip packets.
Click to expand...

that would be the coolest thing ever!!!
 
Rubycon said:
In 500 years people probably won't even know how to read. :hmm:
Click to expand...

I think it's more likely they won't need to read.

So, why can't we search for posts going past a certain date? Was the data lost or is there a self-imposed lifespan of forum activity?
 
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